Baseball game



H. WALKER BASEBALL GAME Filed Aug. 24, 1933 @verifor, I Enzj [mi/cenfli'iorng IIIIIIIIIIIIIII/fll Patented July 16, 1935 UNITED STATES PATEN 2,008,052 BASEBALL GAME Henry Walker, Wilmington, Del., assignor of onethird to Saunders C. Dillon and one-third to Edward M. Kelley, Wilmington, Del.

Application August 24, 1933, Serial No. 686,489 7 Claims. (01. 27389) I OFFICE The object of the invention is to provide improvements in toys or games, which relate to the operation of automatons simulating the action of 1 the players in a regular baseball game, and especially'the pitcher, batter and catcher.

Another object is to provide mechanisms, whereby the movement of the said players is manually controlled, without directly contacting with the players themselves, so that the pitcher actually throws the ball, the batter strikes at the ball, and the catcher catches the ball if the batter misses it.

A further object is to provide a form of inter- 1 connection between the pitcher and catcher,

whereby they are manually set into inoperative or retracted positions, and upon releasing the manual setting means the pitcher throws the ball, and the catcher moves his arms to catch or receive the ball, following a slight delay in order to permit the ball to travel from the pitcher to the catcher.

vStill another object is to provide means in each of the said players, whereby their arms move in individually characteristic manner, thru the simplestmechanism possible, and under actuation or setting by the same form of oscillatable, manually engageable means.

, And a still further object is to provide a playing board upon which the said three players are 7 mounted, together with separated areas into which the ball is adapted to be struck by the latter, for the purpose of determining the value to be given to each hit in scoring,it being also under- 7 stood that if desired a different person may oper- I ate the batter from the one who operates the pitcher and catcher.

' With, these objects in mind, the invention comprises further details of construction and operation, which are fully brought out in the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:-

Fig. l is a plan view of a playing board, comprising one embodiment of the invention, with the three-above-mentioned players not shown in position, but their places indicated as hereinafter described;

Fig. 2 is atransverse section on the line 2-2 of Fig. l; Y

Fig.3 is a somewhatdiagrammatice elevational view of the three players mounted upon a sectional representation of the playing board of Fig. 1;

Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are respectively fragmentary sections on the lines 4-4, 55, and 6-6 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section on the line 1-1 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, a board I is provided peripherally with walls 2 which extend upwardly therefrom, and which walls are continueddowm wardly below the level of said board at 3, to support said board and to provide a housing or protection for the mechanism hereinafter, described. Upon the said board a diamond 4 is provided, which may be raised or which may remain flush with said board, as desired, the pitchers box 5, catchers position 6, home plate 1, and first,'second and third bases 8, 9 and 10, respectively being similarly represented and preferably surrounded by ridges or beading. The positions representing those of the first baseman l I, second baseman and shortstop l2 and I3, and third baseman [4 being identified by preferably circular embossed rings or beading, into which a ballstruck by the batter may fall and remain, in which case it is considered that such other particular player has caught a fly. In the same way, if the ball fallsand remains within the pitchers box 5, it is considered that the pitcher caught a fly, or if in the catchers position 6, that the latter caught afoul. The outfielders positions are similarly indicated by circular embossings at l5, l6 and I1, while within the last-named a ball I3 is shown as having been caught. In addition to the areas thus mentioned, additional elongated areas!!! 9 to 24, inclusive, are provided, with raised margins 24 so that if the ball falls and remains in them, a single, two base, or three-base hit, is scored.

With the catchers position 6 an aperture 25 is shown above which is positioned the catcher a tomaton 26; above an aperture 2'! withinthedia mond t is positioned the pitcher automaton 28 j and above an aperture 29 beside the home plate 1 is positioned the batterautomaton 39; The arms 3| of the catcher (only one of which is'shown in Fig. 3) are carried by angularly bentlevers 32" (Fig. 4), which at their adjacent ends loosely surround the upper end portionof a lever 33, oscillatable about a pivot 36' which transverses the catcher automaton 26, and downwardly'extends thru the base aperture 25 and is engaged by a wire orrod 35. This wire is connected thru a spring 36 to a bracket 31, or equivalent fixed portion of or projection from the base I, and thru a second spring 38 with one arm of a lever 39, which in turn is pivotally carried by a bracket 48 also fixed to said base i, and having its other arm 4i extending thru an aperture 42 in said base,

and manually engageable for the purpose of rer traction of the arms of said catcher, simultaneously with the arm 43 of the pitcher 2S.

Said last-named arm is adapted to support the ball l8 in a retracted position, indicated by the dot-and-dash lines 44 when said lever arm M is depressed, and upon the release of said lever arm, said ball-throwing arm being oscillatable into the full-line position (Fig. 3) about its supporting shaft 45 by virtue of the tension of a spring 46 within the pitcher automaton, said shaft being initially oscillated in the opposite direction by a wire or rod 41, connected to the arm 38 of a lever, which is pivotally supported also upon the under side of said base I by means of a bracket 49, the other arm 58 of said lever being connected in turn by a wire or rod to said actuating lever arm 39, whereby the retraction of the pitchers and catchers arm are efijected simultaneously. Upon release of the lever arm 4 i, said automaton arms oscillate so that the pitchers arm throws the ball, and the arms of the catcher are brought together so as to catch the ball, but with a delay in the, operation of the latter, due to a difference in the tension of the springs 38 and 45, thereby allowing for the time lapse during which the ball passing from the pitcher to the catcher.

ll he bat 52 of the batter, carried by a lever 53 which extends outwardly thru the sides of the central automaton 30, is connected to a shaft 54, the upper portion of which is positioned by a bracket 5.5, while the lower portion of the same extends thru the aperture 29 in the base i, and is, connected thru an angularly extending arm 5.6. with a wire or rod 51-, which is connected thru aspring 58 to said fixed bracket 31, and in the opposite direction to an arm 59 of a retraction lever, which. is oscillatably carried by a bracket 60, the otherarm 5! of which lever also extends outwardly thru the aperture 43 in said base wall 3. Asfthislast-named lever may be actuated independently of said first retracting lever, the action of, thelbatter, is independent of that of the pitcher and, catcher together, so that the element of skill entersprominently into the technique of retracting v nd releasing the batter, so that the spring 51L will; suddenly move the bat at precisely the,

proper. moment to strike a ball passing otherwise from pitcher to catcher, as hereinbefore described.

Hailing thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: 7

'1, l ball game, comprising a base, automatons representing a pitcher and a catcher mounted upon said base, an oscillatable arm for said pitcher, a, pair of oscillatable arms for said catcher adapted to be moved towards each other to catch ai ball thrown by said pitcher, levers connecting the arms of said pitcher and said catchenand' means to manually set said arms in retracted positions, so that when said means released said arms perform their respective functions.

'2, A, ball game, comprlsing a base, automatons, representing a pitcher and a catcher mounted upon said base, an oscillatable arm for said ni ch r a pair of oscillatable arms for said catcher adapted to'be moved towards each other to catch a ball, thrown by said pitcher, levers connecting the arms of said pitcher and said catcher, means to manually set said arms in bat, means to automatically cause the pitcher's arm to throw a ball carried thereby and to cause said catchers arms to catch the ball if passed by the bat upon release of said first retraction means, and separate means to actuate the bat upon release of said second retraction means.

4. A baseball game, comprising a base, three automatons supported by said base and representing a pitcher, a batter and'a catcher, an

oscillatable ball throwing arm upon said pitcher, an oscillatable bat carried by the batter, oscillatable arms carried by the catcher, common means to retract the pitchers arm and said catchers arms, separate means to retract the bat, means i to automatically cause the pitchers arm to throw a ball carried thereby and to cause said catchers arms to catch the ball if passed by the bat upon release of said first retraction means, separate means to actuate the bat upon release of said second retraction means, and means to delay the operation of the catchers arms following, operation of the pitchers arm, to afford a, ball time to pass from the latter to the former. h

5. A ball game, comprising a base, automatons representing a pitcher and a catcher mounted upon said base, an oscillatable arm for said pitcher, a pair of oscillatable arms for said catcher adapted to be moved towards each other to catch a ball thrown bysaid pitcher, levers connecting the arms of said pitcher and said catcher, means to manually set said arms in re-. tracted positions, so that when said means isreleased said arms perform their respective functions, 3, spring to operate said pitchers arm upon release by said manual setting means, a spring to operate said catchersc arms, and a spring of different tension between said catcher and said. manual setting means to delay the action of, the catcher following that of said pitcher.

6. A ball game, comprising a pair of automatons, means to simultaneously set said automatons in retracted positions, common means to automatically actuate said automatons, and connecting means between, said automatons operative by relative slackness to delay the actuation. of one automaton with respect to the other fol atons in retracted positions co mmon meansto. automatically actuate said automatons upon. manually releasing saidsetting means, and,con-'-.

necting means between said automatonsoperae tive to delay the actuation of one automaton with respect to the other following their release by said setting means.

HENRY WALKER, 

